William Lyon Mackenzie King | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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.jpg) King in 1942 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 10th Prime Minister of Canada | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| In office October 23, 1935 – November 15, 1948 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Preceded by | R. B. Bennett | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Succeeded by | Louis St. Laurent | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| In office September 25, 1926 – August 7, 1930 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Monarch | George V | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Preceded by | Arthur Meighen | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Succeeded by | R. B. Bennett | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| In office December 29, 1921 – June 28, 1926 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Monarch | George V | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Governor General | The Lord Byng of Vimy | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Preceded by | Arthur Meighen | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Succeeded by | Arthur Meighen | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Born | (1874-12-17)December 17, 1874 Berlin, Ontario, Canada | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Died | July 22, 1950(1950-07-22) (aged 75) Chelsea, Quebec, Canada | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Resting place | Mount Pleasant Cemetery, Toronto, Ontario | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Political party | Liberal | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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William Lyon Mackenzie King (December 17, 1874 – July 22, 1950) was theprime minister of Canada for three non-consecutive terms from 1921 to 1926, 1926 to 1930, and 1935 to 1948. ALiberal, he was the dominant politician in Canada from the early 1920s to the late 1940s.[a] With a total of 21 years and 154 days in office, he remains thelongest-serving prime minister in Canadian history.
King studiedlaw andpolitical economy in the 1890s and later obtained a PhD, the first Canadian prime minister to have done so. In 1900, he became deputy minister of theCanadian government's new Department of Labour. He entered theHouse of Commons in1908 before becoming the first federalminister of labour in 1909 under Prime MinisterWilfrid Laurier. After losing his seat in the1911 federal election, King worked for theRockefeller Foundation before briefly working as an industrialconsultant. Following the death of Laurier in 1919, Kingwon to theleadership of the Liberal Party. Taking the helm of a party torn apart by theConscription Crisis of 1917, he unified both the pro-conscription and anti-conscription factions of the party, leading it to victory in the1921 federal election.
King established a post-war agenda which lowered wartime taxes and tariffs. He sought to strengthen Canadian autonomy by refusing to supportBritain in theChanak Crisis withoutParliament's consent and negotiating theHalibut Treaty with theUnited States without British interference. His government also passed theChinese Immigration Act, 1923, which banned most forms ofChinese immigration to Canada. In the1925 federal election, theConservatives won a plurality of seats, but the Liberals negotiated support from theProgressive Party and stayed in office as aminority government. In 1926, facing a Commons vote that could force his government to resign, King askedGovernor GeneralLord Byng todissolve parliament and call an election. Byng refused and instead invited the Conservatives to form government, who briefly held office but lost amotion of no confidence. This sequence of events triggered a majorconstitutional crisis, theKing–Byng affair. King and the Liberals wonthe resulting election. Afterwards, King pursued a more independent foreign policy including by expanding theDepartment of External Affairs andCanada's diplomatic missions. His government also introducedold-age pensions based on need. King'sslow reaction to theGreat Depression led to adefeat at the polls in 1930.
In the1935 federal election, King's Liberal Party returned to power in alandslide victory, defeatingR.B. Bennett's Conservative government whose response to the depression was unpopular. King negotiated the 1935 Canada-United StatesReciprocal Trade Agreement, nationalized theBank of Canada, and passed the 1938National Housing Act to improvehousing affordability. His government also established theCanadian Broadcasting Corporation,Trans-Canada Air Lines, and theNational Film Board. Days afterWorld War IIbroke out, King's government deployed Canadian troops, and the Liberals' second landslide victory in the1940 federal election allowed King to continue leadingCanada through the war. After the election, his government introducedunemployment insurance and signed theOgdensburg Agreement with the United States, which established thePermanent Joint Board on Defense. King oversaw thedisplacement and internment of Japanese Canadians on the domestic front and, to satisfyFrench Canadians, he delayed introducing overseas conscription untillate 1944. King's government also introducedfamily allowances (Canada's first universalwelfare program). Followingthe Allies'victory in 1945, King called apost-war election, in which the Liberals lost theirmajority government. In his final years in office, King and his government oversaw Canada's entry into theUnited Nations, partnered Canada with otherWestern nations to take part in the deepeningCold War,introducedCanadian citizenship, and successfully negotiatedNewfoundland'sentry intoConfederation.
King retired from politics in late 1948 and died of pneumonia in July 1950. King's personality was complex. He is best known for his leadership of Canada throughout the Great Depression and World War II, and he played a major role in laying the foundations of the Canadianwelfare state and establishing Canada's international position as amiddle power.[1] Meanwhile, Kingkept secret his beliefs inspiritualism and the use ofmediums to stay in contact with departed associates, particularly with his mother, and allowed his intense spirituality to distort his understanding ofAdolf Hitler throughout the late 1930s.[2] HistorianJack Granatstein notes, "the scholars expressed little admiration for King the man but offered unbounded admiration for his political skills and attention to Canadian unity."[3] In multiple surveys, scholars haveranked King among the top three Canadian prime ministers.
King was born in a frame house rented by his parents at 43 Benton Street in Berlin (nowKitchener), Ontario to John King and Isabel Grace Mackenzie.[4][5][6][7] His maternal grandfather wasWilliam Lyon Mackenzie, first mayor ofToronto and leader of theUpper Canada Rebellion in 1837. His father was a lawyer and later a lecturer atOsgoode Hall Law School. King had three siblings: older sister Isabel "Bella" Christina Grace (1873–1915), younger sister Janet "Jennie" Lindsey (1876–1962) and younger brother Dougall Macdougall "Max" (1878–1922).[8] Within his family, he was known as Willie; during his university years, he adopted W. L. Mackenzie King as his signature and began using Mackenzie as his preferred name with those outside the family.
King's father was a lawyer with a struggling practice in a small city, and never enjoyed financial security. His parents lived a life of shabby gentility, employing servants and tutors they could scarcely afford, although their financial situation improved somewhat following a move to Toronto around 1890, where King lived with them for several years in a duplex on Beverley Street while studying at the University of Toronto.[9]
King became a lifelong practisingPresbyterian with a dedication to social reform based on his Christian duty.[10] He never favouredsocialism.[11]
King enrolled at theUniversity of Toronto in 1891.[5] He obtained aBA degree in 1895, anLLB degree in 1896, and anMA in 1897, all from the university.[12] While studying in Toronto he met a wide circle of friends, many of whom became prominent.[13] He was an early member and officer of theKappa Alpha Society, which included a number of these individuals (two future Ontario Supreme Court Justices and the future chairman of the university itself). It encouraged debate on political ideas. He also was simultaneously a part of the Literary Society withArthur Meighen, a future political rival.[14]
King was especially concerned with issues of social welfare and was influenced by thesettlement house movement pioneered byToynbee Hall in London, England. He played a central role in fomenting a students' strike at the university in 1895. He was in close touch, behind the scenes, with Vice-ChancellorWilliam Mulock, for whom the strike provided a chance to embarrass his rivals ChancellorEdward Blake and PresidentJames Loudon. King failed to gain his immediate objective, a teaching position at the university but earned political credit with Mulock, the man who would invite him toOttawa and make him adeputy minister only five years later.[15] While studying at the University of Toronto, King also contributed to the campus newspaper,The Varsity, and served as president of the yearbook committee in 1896.[16][17][18] King subsequently wrote forThe Globe,The Mail and Empire, and theToronto News.[19] Fellow journalistW. A. Hewitt recalled that, the city editor of theToronto News left him in charge one afternoon with instructions to fire King if he showed up. When Hewitt sat at the editor's desk, King showed up a few minutes later and resigned before Hewitt could tell him he was fired.[19]
After studying at theUniversity of Chicago and working withJane Addams at her settlement house,Hull House, King proceeded toHarvard University. While at the University of Chicago, he participated on their track team as a half-mile runner.[20] He earned an MA in political economy from Harvard in 1898. In 1909, Harvard granted him aPhD degree for a dissertation titled "Oriental Immigration to Canada."[21] King was the first Canadian prime minister to have earned a PhD.[b][22]
In 1900, King became editor of the federal government-ownedLabour Gazette, a publication that explored complex labour issues.[23] Later that year, he was appointed as deputy minister of the Canadian government's new Department of Labour, and became active in policy domains from Japanese immigration to railways, notably theIndustrial Disputes Investigations Act (1907) which sought to avert labour strikes by prior conciliation.[24]
In 1901, King's roommate and best friend,Henry Albert Harper, died heroically during a skating party when a young woman fell through the ice of the partly frozenOttawa River. Harper dove into the water to try to save her, and perished in the attempt. King led the effort to raise a memorial to Harper, which resulted in the erection of theSir Galahad statue onParliament Hill in 1905. In 1906, King published a memoir of Harper, entitledThe Secret of Heroism.[25]
While deputy minister of labour, King was appointed to investigate the causes of and claims for compensation resulting from the 1907anti-Oriental riots inVancouver's Chinatown andJapantown. One of the claims for damages came from Chineseopium dealers, which led King to investigatenarcotics use inVancouver, British Columbia. Following the investigation King reported that white women were also opium users, not just Chinese men, and the federal government used the report to justify the first legislation outlawing narcotics in Canada.[26]
King was first elected toParliament as aLiberal in the1908 federal election, representingWaterloo North. In 1909, King was appointed as the first-everminister of labour by Prime MinisterWilfrid Laurier.[5]
King's term as minister of labour was marked by two significant achievements. He led the passage of theIndustrial Disputes Investigation Act and theCombines Investigation Act, which he had shaped during his civil and parliamentary service. The legislation significantly improved the financial situation for millions of Canadian workers.[27] In 1910 Mackenzie King introduced a bill aimed at establishing an 8-hour day on public works but it was killed in the Senate.[28] He lost his seat in the1911 general election, which saw theConservatives defeat the Liberals and form government.[5]
After his defeat, King went on the lecture circuit on behalf of the Liberal Party. In June 1914John D. Rockefeller Jr. hired him at theRockefeller Foundation in New York City, to head its new Department of Industrial Research. It paid $12,000 per year, compared to the meagre $2,500 per year the Liberal Party was paying.[29] He worked for the Foundation until 1918, forming a close working association and friendship with Rockefeller, advising him through the turbulent period of the 1913–1914 Strike andLudlow Massacre–in what is known as theColorado Coalfield War–at a family-owned coal company inColorado, which subsequently set the stage for a new era in labour management in America.[30] King became one of the earliest expert practitioners in the emerging field ofindustrial relations.
King was not a pacifist, but he showed little enthusiasm for theGreat War; he faced criticism for not serving in Canada's military and instead working for the Rockefellers. However, he was nearly 40 years old when the war began, and was not in good physical condition. He never gave up his Ottawa home, and travelled to the United States on an as-needed basis, performing service to the war effort by helping to keep war-related industries running smoothly.[31]
In 1918, King, assisted by his friend F. A. McGregor, publishedIndustry and Humanity: A Study in the Principles Underlying Industrial Reconstruction, a dense, abstract book he wrote in response to theLudlow massacre. It went over the heads of most readers, but revealed the practical idealism behind King's political thinking. He argued that capital and labour were natural allies, not foes, and that the community at large (represented by the government) should be the third and decisive party in industrial disputes.[32][33] He expressed derision for syndicates and trades unions, chastising them for aiming at the "destruction by force of existing organization, and the transfer of industrial capital from the present possessors" to themselves.[34]
Quitting the Rockefeller Foundation in February 1918, King became an independent consultant on labour issues for the next two years, earning $1,000 per week from leading American corporations. Even so, he kept his official residence in Ottawa, hoping for a call to duty.[35]
In 1917, Canada was in crisis; King supported Liberal leader Wilfrid Laurier in his opposition toconscription, which was violently opposed in the province ofQuebec. The Liberal party became deeply split, with severalAnglophones joining the pro-conscriptionUnion government, a coalition controlled by the Conservatives under Prime MinisterRobert Borden. King returned to Canada to run in the1917 election, which focused almost entirely on the conscription issue. Unable to overcome a landslide against Laurier, King lost in the constituency ofYork North, which his grandfather had once represented.[5]
The Liberal Party was deeply divided by Quebec's opposition to conscription and the agrarian revolt in Ontario and the Prairies. Levin argues that when King returned to politics in 1919, he was a rusty outsider with a weak base facing a nation bitterly split by language, regionalism and class. He outmaneuvered more senior competitors by embracing Laurier's legacy, championing labour interests, calling for welfare reform, and offering solid opposition to the Conservative rivals.[36] When Laurier died in 1919, King was elected leader in the firstLiberal leadership convention, defeating his three rivals on the fourth ballot. He won thanks to the support of the Quebec bloc, organized byErnest Lapointe (1876–1941), later King's long-time lieutenant in Quebec. King could not speak French, but in election after election for the next 20 years (save for 1930), Lapointe produced the critical seats to give the Liberals control of the Commons. When campaigning in Quebec, King portrayed Lapointe as co-prime minister.[37]
Once King became the Liberal leader in 1919 he paid closer attention to thePrairies, a fast-developing region. Viewing a sunrise inAlberta in 1920, he wrote in his diary, "I thought of the New Day, the New Social Order. It seems like Heaven's prophecy of the dawn of a new era, revealed to me."[38] Pragmatism played a role as well, since his party depended for its survival on the votes ofProgressive Party Members of Parliament, many of whom who represented farmers in Ontario and the Prairies. He convinced many Progressives to return to the Liberal fold.[39]
In the1921 election, King's Liberals defeated theConservatives led by Prime MinisterArthur Meighen, winning a narrow majority of 118 out of 235 seats. The Conservatives won 50, the newly formed Progressive Party won 58 (but declined to form the official Opposition), and the remaining ten seats went to Labour MPs and Independents; most of these ten supported the Progressives. King became prime minister.[5]
As prime minister of Canada, King was appointed to thePrivy Council of the United Kingdom on 20 June 1922[40] and was sworn at Buckingham Palace on October 11, 1923,[41] during the1923 Imperial Conference.
During his first term of office, from 1921 to 1926, King sought to lower wartime taxes and, especially, wartime ethnic and labour tensions. "The War is over", he argued, "and for a long time to come it is going to take all that the energies of man can do to bridge the chasm and heal the wounds which the War has made in our social life."[42]
Despite prolonged negotiations, King was unable to attract the Progressives into his government, but once Parliament opened, he relied on their support to defeatnon-confidence motions from the Conservatives. King was opposed in some policies by the Progressives, who opposed the hightariffs of theNational Policy. King faced a delicate balancing act of reducing tariffs enough to please the Prairie-based Progressives, but not so much as to alienate his vital supporters in industrial Ontario and Quebec, who perceived tariffs were necessary to compete with American imports.[43][44]
Over time, the Progressives gradually weakened. Their effective and passionate leader,Thomas Crerar, resigned to return to his grain business, and was replaced by the more placidRobert Forke, who joined King's cabinet in 1926 as Minister of Immigration and Colonization after becoming aLiberal-Progressive. Socialist reformerJ. S. Woodsworth gradually gained influence and power, and King was able to reach an accommodation with him on policy matters.[45] In any event, the Progressive caucus lacked the party discipline that was traditionally enforced by the Liberals and Conservatives. The Progressives had campaigned on a promise that their MP's would represent their constituents first. King used this to his advantage, as he could always count on at least a handful of Progressive MPs to shore up his near-majority position for any crucial vote.
In 1923, King's government passed theChinese Immigration Act, 1923 banning most forms ofChinese immigration to Canada. Immigration from most countries was controlled or restricted in some way, but only the Chinese were completely prohibited from immigrating. This was after various members of the federal and some provincial governments (especiallyBritish Columbia) put pressure on the federal government to discourage Chinese immigration.[46]
Also in 1923, the government modified theImmigration Act to allow former subjects ofAustria-Hungary to once again enter Canada. Ukrainian immigration resumed after restrictions were put in place during World War I.[47]
King had a long-standing concern with city planning and the development of the national capital, since he had been trained in the settlement house movement and envisioned town planning and garden cities as a component of his broader program of social reform. He drew on four broad traditions in early North American planning: social planning, the Parks Movement, the City Scientific, and theCity Beautiful. King's greatest impact was as the political champion for the planning and development of Ottawa, Canada's national capital. His plans, much of which were completed in the two decades after his death, were part of a century of federal planning that repositioned Ottawa as a national space in the City Beautiful style.Confederation Square,[48][49] for example, was initially planned to be a civic plaza to balance the nearby federal presence of Parliament Hill and was turned into a war memorial. The Great War monument was not installed until the 1939 royal visit, and King intended that the replanning of the capital would be the World War I memorial. However, the symbolic meaning of the World War I monument gradually expanded to become the place of remembrance for all Canadian war sacrifices and includes a war memorial.[50]
King called anelection in 1925, in which theConservatives won the most seats, but not a majority in theHouse of Commons. King held onto power with the support of the Progressives. A corruption scandal discovered late in his first term involved misdeeds around the expansion of theBeauharnois Canal in Quebec; this led to extensive inquiries and eventually aRoyal Commission, which exposed theBeauharnois Scandal. The resulting press coverage damaged King's party in the election. Early in his second term, anothercorruption scandal, this time in the Department of Customs, was revealed, which led to more support for the Conservatives and Progressives, and the possibility that King would be forced to resign, if he lost sufficient support in the Commons. King had no personal connection to this scandal, although one of his own appointees was at the heart of it. Opposition leader Meighen unleashed his fierce invective towards King, stating he was hanging onto power "like a lobster with lockjaw".[51]`
In June 1926, King, facing a House of Commons vote connected to the customs scandal that could force his government to resign, advised theGovernor General,Lord Byng, to dissolve Parliament and call another election. Byng, however, declined the Prime Minister's request – the first time inCanadian history that a request for dissolution was refused; and, to date, the only time the governor general of Canada has done so. Byng instead askedLeader of the Opposition, Arthur Meighen, to form government. Although the Conservatives held more seats in the House than any other party, they did not control a majority. They were soon themselves defeated on amotion of non-confidence on July 2. Meighen himself then requested a dissolution of Parliament, which Byng now granted.
King ran the1926 Liberal election campaign largely on the issue of the right of Canadians to govern themselves and against the interference of the Crown. The Liberal Party was returned to power with aminority government, which bolstered King's position on the issue and the position of the Prime Minister generally. King later pushed for greater Canadian autonomy at the1926 Imperial Conference which elicited theBalfour Declaration stating that upon the granting ofdominion status, Canada, Australia, New Zealand,Newfoundland, South Africa, and theIrish Free State, while still autonomous communities within theBritish Empire, ceased to be subordinate to the United Kingdom. Thus, the governor general ceased to represent the British government and was solely the personal representative of the sovereign while becoming a representative ofThe Crown. This ultimately was formalized in theStatute of Westminster 1931.[52][53] On September 14, King and his party won the election with a plurality of seats in the Commons: 116 seats to the Conservatives' 91 in a 245-member House.[54]
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During theChanak Crisis of 1922, King refused to support the British without first consultingParliament, while the Conservative leader, Arthur Meighen, supported Britain. King sought a Canadian voice independent ofLondon in foreign affairs. In September 1922 the British Prime Minister,David Lloyd George, appealed repeatedly to King for Canadian support in the crisis. King coldly replied that the Canadian Parliament would decide what policy to follow, making clear it would not be bound by London's suggestions.[55] King wrote in his diary of the British appeal: "I confess it annoyed me. It is drafted designedly to play the imperial game, to test out centralization versus autonomy as regards European wars...No [Canadian] contingent will go without parliament being summoned in the first instance".[56] The British were disappointed with King's response but the crisis was soon resolved, as King had anticipated.[44] After Chanak, King was concerned about the possibility that Canada might go to war because of its connections with Britain, writing toViolet Markham:
Anything like centralization in London, to say nothing of a direct or indirect attempt on the part of those in office in Downing Street to tell the people of the Dominions what they should or should not do, and to dictate their duty in matters of foreign policy, is certain to prove just as injurious to the so-called 'imperial solidarity' as any attempt at interference in questions of purely domestic concern. If membership within the British Commonwealth means participation by the Dominions in any and every war in which Great Britain becomes involved, without consultation, conference, or agreement of any kind in advance, I can see no hope for an enduring relationship.[57]
For years,halibut stocks were depleting in Canadian and American fishing areas in the NorthPacific Ocean. In 1923, King's government negotiated theHalibut Treaty with the United States. The treaty annually prohibited commercial fishing from November 16 to February 15; violation would result in seizure. The agreement was notable in that Canada negotiated it without a British delegate at the table and without ratification from theBritish Parliament; though not official,convention stated that the United Kingdom would have a seat at the table or be a signatory to any agreement Canada was part of. King argued the situation only concerned Canada and the United States. After, the British accepted King's intentions to send a separate Canadian diplomat toWashington D.C. (to represent Canada's interests) rather than a British one. At the1923 Imperial Conference, Britain accepted the Halibut Treaty, arguing it set a new precedent for the role ofBritish Dominions.[58][59]
King expanded theDepartment of External Affairs, founded in 1909, to further promote Canadian autonomy from Britain. The new department took some time to develop, but over time it significantly increased the reach and projection of Canadian diplomacy.[60] Prior to this, Canada had relied on British diplomats who owed their first loyalty to London. After the King–Byng episode, King recruited many high-calibre people for the new venture, including future prime ministerLester Pearson and influential career administratorsNorman Robertson andHume Wrong. This project was a key element of his overall strategy, setting Canada on a course independent of Britain, of former colonizerFrance, as well as of the neighbouring powerful United States.[44][61]
Throughout his tenure, King led Canada from a dominion with responsible government to an autonomous nation within theBritish Commonwealth. King asserted Canadian autonomy against the British government's attempts to turn the Commonwealth into an alliance. His biographer asserts that "in this struggle Mackenzie King was the constant aggressor".[62] The Canadian High Commissioner to Britain,Vincent Massey, claimed that an "anti-British bias" was "one of the most powerful factors in his make-up".[63]
In domestic affairs, King strengthened the Liberal policy of increasing the powers of the provincial governments by transferring to the governments ofManitoba,Alberta, andSaskatchewan the ownership of the crown lands within those provinces, as well as the subsoil rights; these in particular would become increasingly important, as petroleum and other natural resources proved very abundant. In collaboration with the provincial governments, he inaugurated a system ofold-age pensions based on need.[64] In February 1930, he appointedCairine Wilson as the first femalesenator in Canadian history.
Reductions in taxation were carried out such as exemptions under the sales tax on commodities and enlarged exemptions of income tax, while in 1929 taxes on cables, telegrams, and railway and steamship tickets were removed.[65] In 1924, a Civil Service Superannuation Act was passed with the aim of providing public servants with a suitable income upon retirement from the public service.[66] Under c.39 of 1922, civil servants who were unfit for further duty “may be retired even if they are under 65 years of age.” Under c.42 of 1922, various social provisions were introduced for returned soldiers and dependents.[67] An Act of 1923 improved pension eligibility for returned soldiers.[68] Entitlement to military pensions was also extended.[69][70] In 1929, a previous Insurance Act was amended to enable fraternal societies to issue endowment policies for a period of twenty years or longer, and to increase their maximum policies to $10,000 under certain conditions.[71]
Measures were also carried out to support farmers. In 1922, for instance, a measure was introduced and passed "restoring the Crow's Nest Pass railways rates on grain and flour moving eastwards from the prairie provinces." A Farm Loan Board was set up to provide rural credit; advancing funds to farmers "at rates of interest and under terms not obtainable from the usual sources," while other measures were carried out such as preventative measures against foot and mouth disease and the establishment of grading standards "to assist in the marketing of agricultural products" both at home and overseas. In addition, theCombines Investigation Act of 1923 was aimed at safeguarding consumers and producers from exploitation.[72]
Several measures affecting labour were also carried out.[73][74] In July 1922, an Order in Council was adopted to secure a more effective observance of a fair wages policy.[75] From 1924 onwards, the employment of young persons at sea was regulated in accordance with various international labour conventions.[76] In 1927, the Government Employees' Compensation Act was amended by the Dominion Parliament to provide (as noted by one study) “that all employees of the Dominion government in Prince Edward Island should be eligible for compensation in the same manner and at the same rate as similar workers in New Brunswick.”[77] An order of March 1930 entitled employees of the Dominion Government who worked more than 8 hours daily to an 8-hour workday with a half-holiday on Saturdays.[78] That same year, a Fair Wages and Eight Hours Day Act was introduced.[79]
King's strategy to address the issue ofprovincial-federal relations included the use of theSupreme Court of Canada as a tool to avoid contentious and politically damaging debates. In 1922, theSupreme Court Act was amended to expand the jurisdiction of the Court to hear appeals to provincialreference questions. King used the reference authority 14 times, dealing with significant issues such asaviation,discriminatory fishing licensing schemes, and water-power on navigable waterways.[80]
King's government was in power at the beginning of theGreat Depression, but was slow to respond to the mounting crisis. He felt that the crisis was a temporary swing of the business cycle and that the economy would soon recover without government intervention.[81] Critics said he was out of touch. Just prior to the election, King carelessly remarked that he "would not give a five-cent piece" to Tory provincial governments for unemployment relief.[37] The opposition made this remark a catch-phrase; the main issue was the deterioration in the economy and whether the prime minister was out of touch with the hardships of ordinary people.[82] The Liberals lost theelection of 1930 to the Conservative Party, led byRichard Bedford Bennett. The popular vote was very close between the two parties, with the Liberals actually earning more votes than in 1926, but the Conservatives had a geographical advantage that turned into enough seats to give a majority.[83]
After his 1930 election loss, King stayed on as Liberal leader, becoming theleader of the Opposition for the second time. He began his years as Opposition leader convinced that his government did not deserve defeat and that its financial caution had helped the economy prosper. He blamed the financial crisis on the speculative excesses of businessmen and on the weather cycle. King argued that the worst mistake Canada could make in reacting to the Depression was to raise tariffs and restrict international trade. He believed that over time, voters would learn that Bennett had deceived them and they would come to appreciate the King government's policy of frugality andfree trade.[5]
King's policy was to refrain from offering advice or alternative policies to the Conservative government. Indeed, his policy preferences were not much different from Bennett's, and he let the government have its way. Though he gave the impression of sympathy with progressive and liberal causes, he had no enthusiasm for theNew Deal of U.S. PresidentFranklin D. Roosevelt (which Bennett eventually tried to emulate, after floundering without solutions for several years), and he never advocated massive government action to alleviate the Depression in Canada.[84]
As Opposition leader, King denounced the Bennett government'sbudget deficits as irresponsible, though he did not suggest his own idea of how budgets could bebalanced. King also denounced the "blank cheques" that Parliament was asked to approve for relief and delayed the passage of these bills despite the objections of some Liberals, who feared the public might conclude that the party had no sympathy for those struggling. Each year, after the throne speech and the budget, King introduced amendments that blamed the Depression on Bennett's policy of high tariffs.[5]
By the time the1935 election arrived, the Bennett government was heavily unpopular due to its handling of the Depression. Using the slogan "King or Chaos",[85] the Liberals won alandslide victory, winning 173 out of the Commons' 245 seats and reducing the Conservatives to arump of 40; this was the largestmajority government at the time.[5]
For the first time in his political career, King led an undisputed Liberal majority government. Upon his return to office in October 1935, he demonstrated a commitment (like his American counterpart Roosevelt) to the underprivileged, speaking of a new era where "poverty and adversity, want and misery are the enemies which liberalism will seek to banish from the land".[86] Once again, King appointed himself assecretary of state for external affairs; he held this post until 1946.[5]
Promising a much-desired trade treaty with the U.S., the King government passed the 1935Reciprocal Trade Agreement. It marked a turning point in Canadian-American economic relations, reversing the disastrous trade war of 1930–31, lowering tariffs, and yielding a dramatic increase in trade. More subtly, it revealed to the prime minister and President Roosevelt that they could work well together.[87][88]
King's government introduced the National Employment Commission in 1936. As for the unemployed, King was hostile to federal relief.[89] However, the first compulsory nationalunemployment insurance program was instituted in August 1940 under the King government after a constitutional amendment was agreed to by all of the Canadian provinces, to concede to the federal government legislative power over unemployment insurance. New Brunswick, Alberta and Quebec had held out against the federal government's desire to amend the constitution but ultimately acceded to its request, Alberta being the last to do so. TheBritish North America Act Section 91 was amended by adding in a heading designated Number 2A simply in the words "Unemployment Insurance".[90] As far back as February 1933, the Liberals had committed themselves to introducing unemployment insurance; with a declaration by Mackenzie King that was endorsed by all members of the parliamentary party and the National Liberal Federation in which he called for such a system to be put in place.[91]
Over the next thirteen years, a wide range of reforms were realized during King's last period in office as prime minister. In 1937, the age for blind persons to qualify for old-age pensions was reduced to 40 in 1937, and later to 21 in 1947.[92] In 1939, compulsory contributions for pensions for low-income widows and orphans were introduced (although these only covered the regularly employed) while depressed farmers were subsidized from that same year onwards. In 1944, family allowances were introduced. King had various arguments in favour of family allowances, one of which, as noted by one study, was that family allowances "would mean better food, clothing and medical and dental care for children in low-income families."[93] These were approved after divisions in cabinet.[94] From 1948 the federal government subsidized medical services in the provinces;[95] a policy which led to developments in services such as dental care.[96]
The provincial governments faced declining revenues and higher welfare costs. They needed federal grants and loans to reduce their deficits. In a December 1935 conference with the premiers, King announced that the federal grants would be increased until the spring of 1936. At this stage, King's main goal was to have a federal system in which each level of government would pay for its programs out of its own tax sources.[5]
King only reluctantly accepted aKeynesian solution that involved federaldeficit spending, tax cuts, and subsidies to the housing market.[89] King and hisfinance minister,Charles Avery Dunning, had planned tobalance the budget for 1938. However, some colleagues, to King's surprise, opposed that idea and instead favoured job creation to stimulate the economy, citing British economistJohn Maynard Keynes's theory that governments could increase employment by spending during times of low private investment. In a politically motivated move, King accepted their arguments and hence ran deficits in both 1938 and 1939.[5]
Various reforms affecting working people were also introduced.[97][98][99][100] The various provinces were assisted by theFederal Unemployment and Agricultural Assistance Act of 1938 and theYouth Training Act of 1939 to create training programs for young persons,[101] while an amendment to theCriminal Code in May 1939 provided against refusal to hire, or dismissal, "solely because of a person's membership in a lawful trade-union or association".[102]
TheVocational Training Co-ordination Act of 1942 provided an impetus to the provinces to set up facilities for postsecondary vocational training.[103] Further, in 1948, theIndustrial Relations and Disputes Investigation Act was passed; this act safeguarded the rights of workers to join unions while requiring employers to recognize unions chosen by their employees.[104] A Fisheries Price Support Act was also introduced with the aim of providing fishermen with similar safeguards to industrial workers covered by minimum wage legislation.[105]
The Federal Home Improvement Plan of 1937 provided subsidized rates of interest on rehabilitation loans to 66,900 homes, while theNational Housing Act of 1938 made provision for the building of low-rent housing.[106] Another Housing Act was later passed in 1944 with the intention of providing federally guaranteed loans or mortgages to individuals who wished to repair or construct dwellings through their own initiative.[107]
While King opposed Bennett'sCanadian Wheat Board in 1935, he accepted its operation. However, by 1938, the board had sold its holdings and King proposed returning to the open market. This angeredWestern Canadian farmers, who favoured a board that would give them a guaranteed minimum price, with the federal government covering any losses. Facing a public campaign to keep the board, King and hisminister of agriculture,James Garfield Gardiner, reluctantly extended the board's life and offered a minimum price that would protect the farmers from further declines.[5] Also, from 1935 onwards, measures were carried out to promote prairie farm rehabilitation.[108] Also, in 1945 a Farm Improvement Loans Act was introduced that provided for bank loans for purposes such as land improvement and the repair and construction of farm buildings.[109]
In 1937, King's government established theTrans-Canada Air Lines (the precursor toAir Canada), as a subsidiary of thecrown corporation,Canadian National Railways. It was created to provide air service to all regions of Canada.[110]
In 1938, King's governmentnationalized theBank of Canada into a crown corporation.[111]
In 1936, theCanadian Radio Broadcasting Commission (CRBC) became theCanadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), acrown corporation. The CBC had a better organizational structure, more secure funding through the use of a licence fee on receiving sets (initially set at $2.50), and less vulnerability to political pressure.[112] When Bennett's Conservatives were governing and the Liberals were in Opposition, the Liberals accused the network of being biased towards the Conservatives. During the 1935 election campaign, the CRBC broadcast a series of 15 minutes soap operas calledMr. Sage which were critical of King and the Liberal Party. Decried as political propaganda, the incident was one factor in King's decision to replace the CRBC.[113]
In 1938, King's government invited British documentary makerJohn Grierson to study the situation of the government's film production (which at that time was the responsibility of theCanadian Government Motion Picture Bureau). King believed thatCanadian cinema deserved an increased presence in Canadian theatres.[114] This report prompted theNational Film Act, which created theNational Film Board of Canada in 1939. It was created to produce and distribute films serving the national interest and was intended specifically to make Canada better known both domestically and internationally.[115] Gierson was appointed the first film commissioner in October 1939.[116]
After 1936, the prime minister lost patience whenWestern Canadians preferred radical alternatives such as the CCF (Co-operative Commonwealth Federation) andSocial Credit to his middle-of-the-road liberalism. Indeed, he came close to writing off the region with his comment that the prairie dust bowl was "part of the U.S. desert area. I doubt if it will be of any real use again."[39] Instead he paid more attention to the industrial regions and the needs of Ontario and Quebec, particularly with respect to the proposedSt. Lawrence Seaway project with the United States.[117]
In 1937,Maurice Duplessis, theconservativeUnion Nationalepremier of Quebec, passed thePadlock Law (theAct to Protect the Province Against Communistic Propaganda),[118] which intimidated labour leaders by threatening to lock up their offices for any alleged communist activities. King's government, which had already repealed the section of theCriminal Code banning unlawful associations, considered disallowing this bill. However, King's cabinet minister,Ernest Lapointe, believed this would harm the Liberal Party's electoral chances in Quebec. King and his English-Canadian ministers accepted Lapointe's view; as King wrote in his diary in July 1938, "we were prepared to accept what really should not, in the name of liberalism, be tolerated for one moment."[5]
In March 1936, in response to the Germanremilitarization of the Rhineland, King had theHigh Commission of Canada in the United Kingdom inform the British government that if Britain went to war with Germany over theRhineland issue, Canada would remain neutral.[119] In June 1937, during anImperial Conference in London of the prime ministers of every dominion, King informed Britain's Prime MinisterNeville Chamberlain that Canada would only go to war if Britain were directly attacked, and that if the British were to become involved in a continental war then Chamberlain was not to expect Canadian support.[120]
In 1937, King visitedNazi Germany and met withAdolf Hitler.[121] Possessing a religious yearning for direct insight into the hidden mysteries of life and the universe, and strongly influenced by the operas ofRichard Wagner (who was also Hitler's favourite composer), King decided Hitler was akin to mythicalWagnerian heroes within whom good and evil were struggling. He thought that good would eventually triumph and Hitler would redeem his people and lead them to a harmonious, uplifting future. These spiritual attitudes not only guided Canada's relations with Hitler but gave the prime minister the comforting sense of a higher mission, that of helping to lead Hitler to peace. King commented in his journal that "he is really one who truly loves his fellow-men, and his country, and would make any sacrifice for their good".[122][123] King forecast that:
The world will yet come to see a very great man–mystic in Hitler ... I cannot abide in Nazism – the regimentation – cruelty – oppression of Jews – attitude towards religion, etc., but Hitler ... will rank some day with Joan of Arc among the deliverers of his people.[124]
In late 1938, during the great crisis in Europe overCzechoslovakia that culminated in theMunich Agreement, Canadians were divided. Francophones insisted on neutrality, as did some top advisers likeOscar D. Skelton. Anglophones stood behind Britain and were willing to fight Germany. King, who served as his own secretary of state for external affairs (foreign minister), said privately that if he had to choose he would not be neutral, but he made no public statement. All of Canada was relieved that the Munich Agreement, while sacrificing the sovereignty of Czechoslovakia, seemed to bring peace.[125][126]
Under King's administration, the Canadian government, responding to strong public opinion, especially in Quebec, refused to expand immigration opportunities forJewishrefugees from Europe.[127] In June 1939 Canada, along withCuba and the United States, refused to allow entry for the 900 Jewish refugees aboard the passenger shipMS St. Louis.[128] King's government was widely criticized for its antisemitic policies and refusal to admit Jewish refugees. Most famously, whenFrederick Blair, an immigration official in King's party, was asked how many Jewish refugees Canada would admit afterWorld War II, he replied "None is too many". This policy was wholly supported by King and his political allies.[129]
King accompanied the Royal Couple—KingGeorge VI and Queen Elizabeth—throughout their 1939 cross-Canada tour, as well as on their American visit, a few months before the start of World War II.[130]
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According to historianNorman Hillmer, as British Prime MinisterNeville Chamberlain "negotiated in Munich with Adolf Hitler in September 1938, Mackenzie King, Canada's Prime Minister, grew agitated."[131] King realized the likelihood ofWorld War II and began mobilizing on August 25, 1939, with full mobilization on September 1, 1939, the day Germany invaded Poland. In 1914, at the beginning of World War I, Canada had been at war by virtue of KingGeorge V's declaration, issued solely on the advice of the British government. In 1939, King asserted Canada's autonomy and convened the House of Commons on September 7, nearly a month ahead of schedule, to discuss the government's intention to enter the war. King affirmed Canadian autonomy by saying that the Canadian Parliament would make the final decision on the issue of going to war. He reassured the pro-British Canadians that Parliament would surely decide that Canada would be at Britain's side if Great Britain was drawn into a major war. At the same time, he reassured those who were suspicious of British influence in Canada by promising that Canada would not participate in British colonial wars. HisQuebec lieutenant,Ernest Lapointe, promised French Canadians that the government would not introduce conscription for overseas service; individual participation would be voluntary. These promises made it possible for Parliament to agree almost unanimously todeclare war on September 9. On September 10, King, through his high commissioner in London, issued a request to King George VI, asking him, in his capacity as King of Canada, todeclare Canada at war against Germany.[132][133][134]
To re-arm Canada, King built theRoyal Canadian Air Force as a viable military power, while at the same time keeping it separate from Britain'sRoyal Air Force. He was instrumental in obtaining theBritish Commonwealth Air Training Plan Agreement, which was signed in Ottawa in December 1939, binding Canada, Britain, New Zealand and Australia to a program that eventually trained half the airmen from those four nations in the Second World War.[135]
King linked Canada more and more closely to the United States, signingan agreement with Roosevelt atOgdensburg, New York, in August 1940 that provided for the close cooperation of Canadian and American forces, despite the fact that the U.S. remained officially neutral until the bombing ofPearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. During the war the Americans took virtual control of theYukon in building theAlaska Highway, and major airbases inNewfoundland, at that time under British governance.[136]
King—and Canada—were largely ignored byBritish Prime MinisterWinston Churchill, despite Canada's major role in supplying food,[137] raw materials, munitions,[138] and money[139] to the hard-pressed British economy,training airmen for the Commonwealth, guarding the western half of theNorth Atlantic Ocean against GermanU-boats,[140] and providing combat troops for the invasions of Italy, France and Germany in 1943–45. King proved highly successful in mobilizing the economy for war, with impressive results in industrial and agricultural output. The depression ended, prosperity returned, and Canada's economy expanded significantly.[141]
During the war, Canada rapidly expanded its diplomatic missions abroad. While Canada hosted two major Allied conferences in Quebec in 1943 and 1944, neither King nor his senior generals and admirals were invited to take part in any of the discussions.[142]
King's government made an unprecedented intervention in the1939 Quebec general election to defeat anti-war Premier Maurice Duplessis's Union Nationale and ensure victory for the pro-warQuebec Liberals underAdélard Godbout. Three of King's Cabinet ministers from Quebec (Ernest Lapointe,Arthur Cardin, andCharles Gavan Power) threatened to resign if Duplessis won re-election, claiming that no one would be left to stand up for Quebec in the Cabinet if conscription become an issue again.[143][144] In his diary, King called Duplessis "diabolic" and a "little Hitler", believing Duplessis's aim was to provoke such a crisis betweenFrench Canada andEnglish Canada that Quebec would leave Confederation.[145] King used the powers of censorship under theWar Measures Act to keep Duplessis from speaking on the radio. The Quebec Liberals won a landslide victory.[146]
King rejected any notion of agovernment of national unity like the Unionist Government during World War I.[135] When theLegislative Assembly of Ontario passed a resolution criticizing King's government for not fighting the war "in the vigorous manner the people of Canada desire to see", King dissolvedthe federal parliament, triggeringa federal election for March 26, 1940. He held it despite the ongoing war, unlike Britain, which formed a government of national unity and did not hold a wartime election. King won a second consecutive landslide victory, winning 179 seats – 6 more than in 1935. This was the Liberals' most successful result as of 2023[update] (in terms of proportion of seats). TheOfficial Opposition party, the Conservatives, won the same number of seats as R. B. Bennett did in the 1935 election. King's relationship withLiberal Ontario PremierMitchell Hepburn was damaged due to Hepburn spearheading the resolution criticizing the war effort.[147]
King promoted engineer and businessmanC. D. Howe to senior cabinet positions during the war. King also suffered two cabinet setbacks; hisdefence minister,Norman McLeod Rogers, died in 1940 and his Quebec lieutenant andminister of justice and attorney general, Ernest Lapointe, died in 1941. King successfully sought out the reluctantLouis St. Laurent, a leading Quebec lawyer, to enter the House of Commons and to take over Lapointe's role. St. Laurent became King's right-hand man.[44][148]
On June 24, 1940, King's government presented the first $1 billion budget in Canadian history. It included $700 million in war expenses compared to $126 million in the 1939–1940 fiscal year; however, due to the war, the overall economy was the strongest in Canadian history.[149]
Following theattack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941, Japanese Canadians were categorized by Canada as enemy aliens under theWar Measures Act, which began to remove their personal rights.[150] Starting on December 8, 1941, 1,200 Japanese-Canadian-owned fishing vessels were impounded as a "defence measure."[151] On January 14, 1942, the federal government passed an order calling for the removal of male Japanese nationals between 18 and 45 years of age from a designated protected area of 100 miles inland from the British Columbia coast, enacted a ban against Japanese-Canadian fishing during the war, banned shortwave radios and controlled the sale of gasoline and dynamite to Japanese Canadians.[152] Japanese nationals removed from the coast after the January 14 order were sent to road camps aroundJasper, Alberta.Three weeks later, on February 19, 1942, US President Franklin D. Roosevelt signedExecutive Order 9066, which called for the removal of110,000 people of Japanese ancestry from the American coastline. A historian of internment, Ann Sunahara, argues that "the American action sealed the fate of Japanese Canadians."[153]
On February 24, the federal government passed order-in-council PC 1468 which allowed for theremoval of "all persons of Japanese origin"[154] This order-in-council allowed theMinister of Justice the broad powers of removing people from any protected area in Canada, but was meant for Japanese Canadians on the Pacific coast in particular. On February 25, the federal government announced that Japanese Canadians were being moved for reasons of national security.[155] In all, some 27,000 people were detained without charge or trial, and their property confiscated. Others were deported to Japan.[156]King and his Cabinet received conflicting intelligence reports about the potential threat from the Japanese. Major GeneralKen Stuart told Ottawa, "I cannot see that the Japanese Canadians constitute the slightest menace to national security."[157] In contrast, BC's attorney general,Gordon Sylvester Wismer reported that, while he had "the greatest respect for" and "hesitated to disagree with" the RCMP, "every law enforcement agency in this province, including ... the military officials charged with local internal security, are unanimous that a grave menace exists."[158]
King's government greatly expanded the role of theNational Research Council of Canada during the war, moving into full-scale research in nuclear physics and commercial use ofnuclear power in the following years. King, withC. D. Howe acting as point man, moved the nuclear group fromMontreal toChalk River, Ontario in 1944, with the establishment ofChalk River Nuclear Laboratories and the residential town ofDeep River, Ontario. Canada became a world leader in this field, with theNRX reactor becoming operational in 1947; at the time, NRX was the only operational nuclear reactor outside the United States.[159]
King's promise not to impose conscription contributed to the defeat ofMaurice Duplessis'sUnion Nationale Quebec provincial government in 1939 and the Liberals' re-election in the 1940 election. But after the fall of France in 1940, Canada introduced conscription for home service (conscription meant for the defence of Canada only). Only volunteers were to be sent overseas. King wanted to avoid a repeat of theConscription Crisis of 1917. By 1942, the military was pressing King hard to send conscripts to Europe. In 1942, King helda national plebiscite on the issue, asking the nation to relieve him of the commitment he had made during the election campaign. In the House of Commons on June 10, 1942, he said that his policy was "not necessarily conscription but conscription if necessary".[160]
French Canadians voted against conscription, with over 70 percent opposed, but an overwhelming majority – over 80 percent – of English Canadians supported it. French and English conscripts were sent to fight in theAleutian Islands in 1943 – technically North American soil and therefore not "overseas" – but the mix of Canadian volunteers and draftees found that the Japanese troops had fled before their arrival. Otherwise, King continued with a campaign to recruit volunteers, hoping to address the problem with the shortage of troops caused by heavy losses in theDieppe Raid in 1942, in Italy in 1943, and after theBattle of Normandy in 1944. In November 1944, the government decided it was necessary to send conscripts for the war. This led to a brief political crisis (seeConscription Crisis of 1944) anda mutiny by conscripts posted in British Columbia, but the war ended a few months later. In all, 12,908 conscripts were sent to fight abroad, though only 2,463 saw combat.[161]
With the war winding down, King calleda federal election for June 11, 1945. The Liberals' election campaign was centered on a broad program ofsocial security. Although King was hesitant for his government to expand its role in the economy and rundeficits, he accepted it as these measures aligned with his concern for people struggling financially. There were political motives too; the Liberals needed to compete with the risingsocialistCo-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF) for votes.[5] In addition, King promised to commit one division of volunteers toOperation Downfall, the planned invasion of Japan scheduled for late 1945-early 1946, whereasProgressive Conservative leaderJohn Bracken promised conscription. Bracken's promise was unpopular and it thus benefited the Liberals.[162]
The Liberals were knocked down from a massivemajority government to aminority government. However, they were able to govern with a working majority with the support of eight "Independent Liberal" MPs (most of whom did not run as official Liberals because of their opposition to conscription). The Liberals' decline in support was partly attributed to the introduction of conscription, which was unpopular in many parts of Canada. As King was defeated in his own riding ofPrince Albert, fellow LiberalWilliam MacDiarmid, who was re-elected in thesafe seat ofGlengarry, resigned so that an August 6 by-election could be held, which was subsequently won by King.[5]
King helped found theUnited Nations (UN) in 1945 and attended the opening meetings in San Francisco.[163] Though he conceded thatmajor powers such as the United States and the United Kingdom would dominate the organization, King argued thatmiddle powers such as Canada should be given an influence on the UN based on their contributions to the settlement of disputes.[5]
King moved Canada into the deepeningCold War in alliance with the U.S. and Britain. He dealt with the espionage revelations of Soviet cipher clerkIgor Gouzenko, who defected in Ottawa in September 1945, by quickly appointing aRoyal Commission to investigate Gouzenko's allegations of aCanadian Communist spy-ring transmitting top-secret documents to Moscow.Justice MinisterLouis St. Laurent dealt decisively with this crisis, the first of its type in Canada's history.[164] St. Laurent succeeded King as external affairs minister in September 1946.[5]
After the war, King quickly dismantled wartime controls. Unlike World War I, press censorship ended with the hostilities.[165]
King's government introduced theCanadian Citizenship Act in 1946, which officially created the notion of "Canadian citizens". Prior to this, Canadians were consideredBritish subjects living in Canada. On January 3, 1947, King received Canadian citizenship certificate number 0001.[166]
King also laid the groundwork for theDominion of Newfoundland's later entry intoCanadian Confederation, stating, "Newfoundlanders are no strangers to Canada, nor are Canadians strangers to Newfoundland." Pro-Confederation NewfoundlandersFrederick Gordon Bradley andJoey Smallwood argued that joining Canada would raise thestandard of living for Newfoundlanders; Britain also favoured Confederation.A runoff vote was held on July 22, 1948, and 52.3 percent of voters decided that Newfoundland should enter Canada. After, Smallwood negotiated the terms of entry with King. Newfoundland entered Confederation on March 31, 1949, becoming Canada's tenth province.[167][168]
With his health declining, King declared in May 1948 that he would not be Liberal leader going in the next election.[5] TheAugust 1948 convention (held exactly 29 years after King became Liberal leader) picked St. Laurent, King's personal choice, as the new leader of the Liberal Party.[169] Three months later, on November 15, King retired after21+1⁄2 years as prime minister. King was the longest-serving prime minister in Canadian history; he also served in the most parliaments (six, in three non-consecutive periods) as prime minister.[5]
King had plans to write his memoirs. However, he did not enjoy a lengthy retirement and died on July 22, 1950, athis country estate in Kingsmere[5] from pneumonia.[170] He is buried inMount Pleasant Cemetery, Toronto.[171]
King lacked a commanding presence or oratorical skills; he did not shine on the radio or in newsreels. There was scant charisma.[172] Cold and tactless in human relations, he had allies but very few close personal friends. His allies were annoyed by his constant intrigues.[173]
Scholars attribute King's long tenure as party leader to his wide range of skills that were appropriate to Canada's needs.[174]King kept a very candid diary from 1893, when he was still an undergraduate, until a few days before his death in 1950; the volumes, stacked in a row, span a length of over seven metres and comprise over 50,000 manuscript pages of typed transcribed text.[175] One biographer called these diaries "the most important single political document in twentieth-century Canadian history,"[176] for they explain motivations of theCanadian war efforts and describe other events in detail.
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King'soccult interests were kept secret during his years in office,[177] and only became publicized after his death when his diaries were opened. Readers were amazed and for some, King was saddled with the moniker "Weird Willie."[178] King communed with spirits, using seances with paid mediums. Thereby, he claimed to have communicated withLeonardo da Vinci,Wilfrid Laurier, his dead mother, his grandfather, and several of his dead dogs, as well as the spirit of the lateUS president Franklin D. Roosevelt. Some historians argue that he sought personal reassurance from the spirit world, more than political advice. After his death, one of his mediums said that she had not realized that he was a politician. King did inquire whether his party would win the 1935 election, one of the few times politics came up during his seances. However, Allan Levine argues that sometimes he did pay attention to the political implications of his seances: "All of his spiritualist experiences, his other superstitions and his multi-paranoid reactions imprinted on his consciousness, shaping his thoughts and feelings in a thousand different ways."[179]
Historians have seen in hisspiritualism and occult activities a penchant for forging unities from antitheses, thus having latent political import. HistorianC.P. Stacey, in his 1976 bookA Very Double Life examined King's secret life in detail, argued that King did not allow his beliefs to influence his decisions on political matters. Stacey wrote that King entirely gave up his interests in the occult and spiritualism during World War II.[180] In his two-volume biographyThe Spiritualist Prime Minister: Mackenzie King and the New Revelation andThe Spiritualist Prime Minister: Mackenzie King and His Mediums, Anton Wagner documents that King maintained his spiritualist beliefs and occult practices until his death in 1950. Wagner maintains that King’s spiritualism contributed to his political achievements as Canada’s longest serving Prime Minister.[181]
King never married,[177] but had several close female friends, including Joan Patteson, a married woman with whom he spent some of his leisure time; sometimes she served as hostess at his dinner parties.[182] He did not have a wife who could be the hostess all the time and handle the many social obligations that he tried to downplay. Editor Charles Bowman reports that, "He felt the lack of a wife, particularly when social duties called for a hostess."[183]
Some historians have interpreted passages in his diaries as suggesting that King regularly had sexual relations with prostitutes.[184] Others, also basing their claims on passages of his diaries, have suggested that King was in love withLord Tweedsmuir, whom he had chosen for appointment asGovernor General in 1935.[185]
King kept a detailed personal diary from July 23, 1893, until December 13, 1950, just days before his death.[186] Spanning 51,084 pages in 172 volumes, it is one of the most extensive personal records kept by any political leader.[187]
King began the diary at age 19 while studying at theUniversity of Toronto, initially as a tool for moral reflection and self-improvement. It evolved into a daily record of both his inner life and his political career, encompassing Cabinet discussions, international meetings, and his personal emotions.[188] From 1935 onward, he dictated entries to secretaries, greatly expanding their scope and detail.[189]
Recurring themes include King’s devotion to his mother, his religious beliefs, and his fascination withspiritualism, particularly after 1917. He recorded numerous séances and claimed to communicate with the spirits of deceased relatives,Wilfrid Laurier, and his dog Pat.[190] Early entries also describe his encounters with prostitutes in Toronto and Ottawa, written as moral reform efforts yet revealing deep self-reproach.[191]
In his 1950 will, King instructed his executors to destroy the diaries except for marked sections he deemed suitable for publication, but he never identified any portions. His executors—Fred A. McGregor, J.W. Pickersgill, Norman Robertson, and W. Kaye Lamb—chose instead to preserve them, citing their historical significance.[192] Most spiritualism notebooks were destroyed in 1977, but the main diaries were transferred to theLibrary and Archives Canada in 1975 and made public by 1981.[193]
HistorianGeorge Stanley argues that King's wartime policies, "may not have been exciting or satisfying, but they were effective and successful. That is why, practically alone among wartime governments, he continued to enjoy public support after as well as during the Second World War."[194] HistorianJack Granatstein evaluates the King government's economic performance. He reports, "Canada's economic management was generally judged the most successful of all the countries engaged in the war."[195]
HistorianChristopher Moore says, "King had made 'Parliament will decide' his maxim, and he trotted it out whenever he wished to avoid a decision."[196] King was keenly sensitive to the nuances of public policy; he was a workaholic with a shrewd and penetrating intelligence and a profound understanding of the complexities of Canadian society.[197] His strength was apparent when he synthesized, built support for, and passed measures that had reached a level of broad national support. Advances in the welfare state were an example. His successors, especially Diefenbaker, Pearson, and Trudeau built the welfare state which he had advanced during the Second World War into the modern cradle-to-grave system.[198]
HistorianH. Blair Neatby wrote, "Mackenzie King has continued to intrigue Canadians. Critics argue that his political longevity was achieved by evasions and indecision, and that he failed to provide creative leadership. His defenders argue that he gradually changed Canada, a difficult country to govern, while keeping the nation united."[24]
King was ranked as the greatest Canadian Prime Minister by a survey of Canadian historians.[199] King was named aPerson of National Historic Significance in 1968.[200]
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King's likeness is used on theCanadian fifty-dollar note since 1975.
King left no published political memoirs, although his private diaries were extensively detailed. His main published work remains his 1918 bookIndustry and Humanity.[34]
Following the publication of King's diaries in the 1970s, several fictional works about him were published by Canadian writers. These included Elizabeth Gourlay's novelIsabel,Allan Stratton's playRexy and Heather Robertson's trilogyWillie: A Romance (1983),Lily: A Rhapsody in Red (1986), andIgor: A Novel of Intrigue (1989).[201]
In 1998, there was controversy over King's exclusion from a memorial to theQuebec Conference, which was attended by King, Roosevelt, and Churchill. The monument was commissioned by thesovereigntistParti Québécois government of Quebec, which justified the decision on their interpretation that King was acting merely as a host for the meeting between Roosevelt and Churchill. Canadian federalists, however, accused the government of Quebec of trying to advance their own political agenda.
OC Transpo has aTransitway station named Mackenzie King due to its location on theMackenzie King Bridge. It is adjacent to theRideau Centre in downtown Ottawa, Ontario.
The bridge across theRideau Canal in downtown Ottawa, built following World War II, is named in his honour to recognize his contributions to the land planning of the city of Ottawa.[180]
King bequeathed his private country retreat inKingsmere, Quebec, near Ottawa, to the Government of Canada and most of the estate was incorporated into the federally managedGatineau Park. King's summer home at Kingsmere, called "The Farm", now serves as theofficial residence of theSpeaker of the House of Commons of Canada. The Farm and its grounds are located within Gatineau Park but are not open to the public.
TheWoodside National Historic Site inKitchener, Ontario was King's boyhood home. The estate has over 4.65 hectares of garden and parkland for exploring and relaxing, and the house has been restored to reflect life during King's era. There is a MacKenzie King Public School in the Heritage Park neighbourhood in Kitchener. Kitchener was known as Berlin until 1916.
King was mentioned in the bookAlligator Pie byDennis Lee, appearing as the subject of anonsensical children's poem,[201] which reads "William Lyon Mackenzie King / He sat in the middle and played with string / He loved his mother like anything / William Lyon Mackenzie King."
King is a prominent character inDonald Jack's novelMe Too, set in Ottawa in the 1920s.
A character who appeared twice in the popular 1990s Canadian television seriesDue South was named "Mackenzie King" in obvious reference.
King is portrayed bySean McCann inDonald Brittain's 1988 television miniseriesThe King Chronicle,[202] and byDan Beirne inMatthew Rankin's 2019 filmThe Twentieth Century.[203]
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| Ribbon | Description | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Order of Merit (OM) | |
| Companion of theOrder of St Michael and St George (CMG) | |
| King George V Silver Jubilee Medal |
|
| King George VI Coronation Medal |
|
| Grand Croix de l'Ordre national de la Légion d'honneur | |
| Grand croix de l'Ordre de la couronne de Chêne | |
| Grand cordon de l'Ordre de Léopold |
| Location | Date | School | Degree |
|---|---|---|---|
 Ontario | 1919 | Queen's University | Doctor of Laws (LL.D)[207] |
| Ontario | 1923 | University of Toronto | Doctor of Laws (LL.D)[208] |
 Connecticut | 1924 | Yale University | Doctor of Laws (LL.D)[209] |
 Virginia | 1948 | College of William and Mary | Doctor of Laws (LL.D)[210] |
| Ontario | 3 June 1950 | University of Western Ontario | Doctor of Laws (LL.D)[211] |
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King chose the following jurists to be appointed as justices of theSupreme Court of Canada:
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{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: publisher location (link)...only Woodsworth and two MPs from Quebec opposed participation in the war.
Particularly after the fall of France in June 1940, Canadian food exports provided an essential lifeline to Britain.
During this period, the Minister of Justice was the right hand man of the Prime Minister
William Lyon Mackenzie King visual chronology at Wikimedia CommonsMedia from Commons
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